Posted by A. H.
a resident of another community
on Dec 19, 2011 at 8:20 pm

I witnessed this, as the suspects' car came up on my rear in the fast lane, flew all the way to the right lane passing cars, swerving all the way back to the left shoulder before hitting the center divide and flipping over. It was traumatic to witness. The fact that none of the rest of us on the freeway travelling at 65 or more got hit is pretty remarkable. Thanks to drivers paying attention.

We saw the chase... a teal green car passed us on the medium next to barrier, then crossed over to the far right lane a few seconds later Pleasanton police was in pursuit. A few minutes later traffic was stopped, left 2 lanes were closed and 3 police cruisers were around vehicle with weapons drawn. Car was on it's roof, and the suspects were laying face-down near the vehicle. Glad no body else was involved or got hurt during the crash, they were going pretty fast. I feel sorry for the owner of the car, it was totally destroyed and a nice car from what I saw of it. My daughter took a video of the crash.

It sounds like auto burglary, not auto theft. So the green 1987 Buick of the suspects was not stolen, at least not at the mall. So they only destroyed their own nice car. Probably also increased their insurance premium while they were at it.

Posted by Pro-Law
a resident of Another Pleasanton neighborhood
on Dec 20, 2011 at 2:11 am

Good job catching them.

With that said, if this chase was only for property crimes I question why it was continued at such high speeds. If there was some sort of violence against a person, other the speeding and reckless driving, then I'm all for it. I don't see that in the news report though.

"Gamez will be booked for possession of burglary tools and evading a police officer, as well as a felony warrant for possession of stolen property and vehicle theft."
Vehicle theft is not just a 'property crime', as you eluded to. Glad the dirtbags were captured and hope they'll be doing hard time soon, or will be promptly deported.

It's good that these stories receive some press to serve as a deterrent for those opportunistic scum that happen to travel here to inflict pain on our neighbors during Christmas.

Pro-Law said: "With that said, if this chase was only for property crimes I question why it was continued at such high speeds. If there was some sort of violence against a person, other the speeding and reckless driving, then I'm all for it. I don't see that in the news report though."

I have mixed feelings about this. On the one hand, yes, the original crime that they were being chased for was apparently a property crime, not a violent crime. On the other hand, these two criminals obviously didn't hesitate to put innocent people at risk with their speeding and reckless driving in this incident. If they had escaped, I think that ot's pretty safe to conclude that they would have continued to commit auto burglary and other such crimes even under circumstances which put innocent lives at risk. How would it have looked if they had escaped this time but then two weeks from now they ran over and killed some innocent pedestrians while escaping from yet another auto burglary?

Posted by Chris
a resident of Kottinger Ranch
on Dec 20, 2011 at 9:00 am

I feel sorry for the police! Based on your notes they are damned if they do and damned if they don't. You need to make up your minds people. You can't have it both ways......should they chase after and catch the the bad guys or let them run free. Next time they get bolder and use a gun for a carjacking. If their lucky maybe they will get to kill someone in their next crime spree. Would that make you all feel better if the police got them that time?

Posted by Miggitymike
a resident of San Ramon
on Dec 20, 2011 at 10:24 am

They chased them right passed us going well over a 100mph driving in and out of traffic across all lanes in one move back and forth. The cops did an awesome job keeping up and waiting for them to lose control...lucky no one else was involved. Glad they caught them!!

Posted by Shannon
a resident of Stoneridge Orchards
on Dec 20, 2011 at 10:43 am

I agree with the PPD and the job they did. I am glad they caught them. I witnessed a theft at Nordstrom at the end of the night. Those kids got away with it. They calmly stacked clothes by the stairs and walked away until ready. Then right at closing they grabbed the stack and ran out to a waiting car with the driver ready. They tossed the clothes in and slammed the doors and took up with hundreds of dollars of merchandise. No cop or security in site so these peeps got away with it laughing all they way to the freeway. I tried to take a picture but it was too dark.

Posted by Vanessa
a resident of Pleasanton Meadows
on Dec 20, 2011 at 2:29 pm

I can't believe the folks accusing the police of reckless behavior when the thieves portrayed even worse behavior. If it were me, hell yes I want the police getting after the bad guys and making sure they were caught. People work hard to spend their money and then these jerks come around and take what isn't their's. All of these fools need to be tossed in the slammer. Bravo to the police for a job well done!

Good for the police! Always hate to see a high speed chase endangering innocent bystanders, but I like seeing the crooks apprehended. I am also hesitant to second guess the police when I'm not there. They are making split second decisions trying to balance protecting all of our interests.

Great job PPD! They may have caught these guys on one auto burglary but I bet these guys had committed dozens prior to this. It's a cost of business. We can't let criminals get away. That means we have to chase them and the repercussions would be the fault of the crooks, not the cops. That being said, I hope the cops use common sense. We trust these guys (and girls) to do their jobs well and this may just be an example of them doing that....No innocent people were hurt DESPITE the obviously precarious situation. Think about it...do you think that cop benefitted at all from putting himself in a dangerous situation? No...he did it to catch the guy that was going to break into YOUR car next week!